We have four kids now!
Because he is amazing, Brent procured for me our final child yesterday. I have wanted this child since I was a kid, done shitloads of research on it, etc, etc.
Last night, Betty, a six-year-old African Grey parrot (Congo) came to be part of our family, and since they have the intelligence of a five-year-old and the emotional intelligence of a two-year-old, for 50+ years, well, yeah, she's a new kid in the house. Here's what she looks like. I'll post pics of the "real" Betty when she's settled in more.
We now have TWO five-year-olds, I realized.
She has a vocabulary of 600-700 words and learns songs from hearing them only one or two times. Since I spend nearly every waking second singing (I admit it: I sing WHILE peeing, even...does anyone else do this? I'm interested to know.) I can't wait to hear her singing things that I haven't even realized I've been singing around the house.
Shaw will do the same thing. He, as you probably know, is an amazing singer, and also spends a huge amount of his waking AND sleeping time singing and we will hear him singing new, awesome, obscure songs and I realize, "Oh, the only way he would have learned that is if I was walking around singing it because I haven't played it in the car, on iTunes, or my iPod or anything else."
So now we have a female Shaw who will never grow up. :-) How Peter Panesque. Hmm...that reminds me, I had a dream about a re-vamped "Peter Pan's Flight" ride at DisneyWorld last night, probably because, along with many National Parks, monuments, etc, we're taking the kids there on our vacation this summer. (Super YAY! I get to gaze at birds in The Everglades again AND go to the Haunted Mansion with Brent...finally. It was closed for repairs the only time we've been there together.)
So, Betty is here. I had made mention that our next parrot would be named Squeaky Fromme to go along with our Assassins theme (Wilkes and Harvey,our beagles, and Guiteau one of our conures) but one never knows what the future holds, I suppose. One can't very well change a five-year-old's name when she's had it for six years.
So, thus far we've learned that Betty makes a perfect imitation of water dripping when she's unsure of something and that she imitates a smoke detector when its batteries are low PERFECTLY. The first time she did it I really thought a smoke detector was chirping that it needed attention.
Oh, I also learned that she KNOWS what the word "kiss" means. If you don't know, African Greys are considered by most experts to be the most intelligent species of the parrot world. Check out this very tiny article on probably the most famous African Grey,Alex, if you're the slightest bit interested in the capabilities of these amazing creatures. So, last night She was sitting on my shoulder and I looked at her and said, "Kiss?" And she moved in at me, hissed, and gave me a warning nip on the smacker! I gave her a firm "No," but I can hardly blame her for being touchy at this point. She's basically been told to pack a suitcase and that she's going to a relocation camp. (Yeah, my Dad is half-Jewish, so I can get away with Halocaust jokes easier than most. A Seinfeld episode comes to mind now...)
We also have been warned that if we do not cover her at night she will wake up at the crack of dawn and awaken the entire household with a perfect voice-throwing of an alarm clock going off. I'm curious to try not putting the cover on once, just to see if, when she starts into the alarm clock imitation, if I tap the side of the cage, she'll stop for nine minutes, then "go off" again in another nine. ;-)
Last night, Betty, a six-year-old African Grey parrot (Congo) came to be part of our family, and since they have the intelligence of a five-year-old and the emotional intelligence of a two-year-old, for 50+ years, well, yeah, she's a new kid in the house. Here's what she looks like. I'll post pics of the "real" Betty when she's settled in more.
We now have TWO five-year-olds, I realized.
She has a vocabulary of 600-700 words and learns songs from hearing them only one or two times. Since I spend nearly every waking second singing (I admit it: I sing WHILE peeing, even...does anyone else do this? I'm interested to know.) I can't wait to hear her singing things that I haven't even realized I've been singing around the house.
Shaw will do the same thing. He, as you probably know, is an amazing singer, and also spends a huge amount of his waking AND sleeping time singing and we will hear him singing new, awesome, obscure songs and I realize, "Oh, the only way he would have learned that is if I was walking around singing it because I haven't played it in the car, on iTunes, or my iPod or anything else."
So now we have a female Shaw who will never grow up. :-) How Peter Panesque. Hmm...that reminds me, I had a dream about a re-vamped "Peter Pan's Flight" ride at DisneyWorld last night, probably because, along with many National Parks, monuments, etc, we're taking the kids there on our vacation this summer. (Super YAY! I get to gaze at birds in The Everglades again AND go to the Haunted Mansion with Brent...finally. It was closed for repairs the only time we've been there together.)
So, Betty is here. I had made mention that our next parrot would be named Squeaky Fromme to go along with our Assassins theme (Wilkes and Harvey,our beagles, and Guiteau one of our conures) but one never knows what the future holds, I suppose. One can't very well change a five-year-old's name when she's had it for six years.
So, thus far we've learned that Betty makes a perfect imitation of water dripping when she's unsure of something and that she imitates a smoke detector when its batteries are low PERFECTLY. The first time she did it I really thought a smoke detector was chirping that it needed attention.
Oh, I also learned that she KNOWS what the word "kiss" means. If you don't know, African Greys are considered by most experts to be the most intelligent species of the parrot world. Check out this very tiny article on probably the most famous African Grey,Alex, if you're the slightest bit interested in the capabilities of these amazing creatures. So, last night She was sitting on my shoulder and I looked at her and said, "Kiss?" And she moved in at me, hissed, and gave me a warning nip on the smacker! I gave her a firm "No," but I can hardly blame her for being touchy at this point. She's basically been told to pack a suitcase and that she's going to a relocation camp. (Yeah, my Dad is half-Jewish, so I can get away with Halocaust jokes easier than most. A Seinfeld episode comes to mind now...)
We also have been warned that if we do not cover her at night she will wake up at the crack of dawn and awaken the entire household with a perfect voice-throwing of an alarm clock going off. I'm curious to try not putting the cover on once, just to see if, when she starts into the alarm clock imitation, if I tap the side of the cage, she'll stop for nine minutes, then "go off" again in another nine. ;-)